Use MapCrunch to go to places in the world without ever leaving the classroom. Explore the world's geography and cultures easily. View detailed "Google Street View" snapshots of towns, cities, and areas all over the globe. Randomly tour spots on the earth or choose a tour by continent. Use the navigation buttons to zoom in or out or shift the MapCrunch window to face a different direction. Click on the checkbox to use the slideshow feature. Share by using a link, through Facebook, or email.

In the Classroom

Assign students various countries, regions, or continents to make comparisons. Identify the biological, geographical, cultural, and social issues that exist in the world, based on what the pictures show and what their research uncovers. Bring a greater understanding to current economic and environmental issues in many countries. World language (or World Cultures) classes can help students understand the cultures of the countries where the language is spoken. Compare specific attributes of two countries using an online Venn Diagram, such as the one reviewed here. Another idea: have cooperative learning groups use this resource to create online books about the country of their tour using a resource such as Bookemon,

Everything you wanted to know about snow can be found in this informative site. The site is divided into easy to use sections containing facts, questions and answers, a gallery, and other useful links. The range of topics goes from blizzards to snow formations. Especially informative is the question and answer section where readers can find the answer to questions from "How big can a snowflake get?" to "Is it ever too cold to snow?"

In the Classroom

Ask students to write their own questions about snow and research the information on this site. This is a perfect site to include with any winter activities. Ask students to locate the places mentioned in the gallery on a map. Have students research a historic snowstorm from a specific geographical location and use an online mapping tool to tell the class about the winter event (and location). Try a tool such as MapSkip (reviewed here). Use the site when teaching a unit on weather (or winter Olympics) for factual information about snow using the resources link. Extend the snow "storm" with snowflake interactives such as Make a Flake, reviewed here.

This site offers many links to information about Snowflake Bentley and other resources for studying snow crystals. Wilson (Snowflake) A. Bentley is credited with the discovery that no two snowflakes are alike. His research and studies on snowflakes were conducted in the small Vermont town of Jericho. Snowflake pioneered the science of photographing snow crystals by attaching a microscope to his camera. The most in-depth section of the site offers resources to learn more about snowflakes such as an educational unit on snowflakes, computer recreations of snowflakes and math sites studying patterns and symmetry.

In the Classroom

Use this site as the starting point for individual or group projects about famous pioneers, weather research, or famous characters from books. This site is a perfect addition to any winter activities. Have cooperative learning groups investigate a specific section of this site and share their findings on your class wiki. Not comfortable with wikis? Have no wiki worries - check out the TeachersFirst's Wiki Walk-Through.

At reencoded you will find beautiful, interesting photography you can use as writing prompts. The URL for this review is just one of the pages of cool photography you will find at this site. Since this is a blog, the front page will change frequently, so be sure to bookmark your favorite pages. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "older entries" to find a plethora of material.

In the Classroom

Using photos as prompts is good for the students who have writers block, are having problems visualizing what they want to convey in words, or for young writers just starting out. Giving students a photo helps them to form a story and makes their ideas more concrete. Use your projector or interactive whiteboard to project one of the photographs and have students envision the photo as a video that has been put on pause. Ask students to come up with ideas for what happened in the video before it was paused, and what will happen once the video is on "play" again. Have students annotate the picture with the ideas the class comes up with, and then let them get started writing their story to go with the photo. You could do several of these and make a class book of the students' writing. For this you might want to use Mixbook reviewed here to publish student writing to give your writers workshop publishing a professional flare.

This site offers colorful pictures of different kinds of traditional dress from around the world: Scotland, South Africa, Italy, Spain, Nigeria, Egypt, China, Vietnam, Sweden, Brazil, and others. An accompanying PowerPoint lesson plan allows instructors to display the clothing graphics on a screen; the PowerPoint contains extra information about the clothing and cultures they represent. The target group for this lesson is beginning language learners. You must have PowerPoint software to open the downloadable PowerPoint shows.
Be aware: this site does include many advertisements which may be rather distracting.

In the Classroom

Use this site with beginning world language lessons; select appropriate slides from the cultures speaking the target language. Have students consult with relatives about other forms of traditional dress and draw their own color illustrations. Have students find photos and create a multimedia presentation to share with the class. Try Compfight reviewed here to locate Creative Commons images students may use. Challenge students to narrate a picture using Slidestory, reviewed here.
Use the lesson plan as a jumping off point for student research projects on other countries and cultures. Younger students may enjoy printing the clothing slides and creating puzzles with similar shaped pieces. Mix the pieces and have students assemble the clothing correctly and name the countries involved.

Find and use copyright-free pictures using simple tools and copy/paste to get the embed code. Use Wylio to search for a picture in the topic of your choice. Enter a search term, view the possible pictures, and click on your choice. Change the alignment of the picture and the size it will appear using the simple tools. When done, click "Get The Code" to view the embeddable code. Copy and paste the code into a site, blog, or wiki to share with others. What is special about Wylio? The attribution to the picture's author is embedded into the code, so you are modeling ethical use of electronic resources!

In the Classroom

Users must be knowledgeable about embed codes and how to use them in a site, blog, or wiki. Be sure to test out embedding a picture on your site to anticipate problems when students use Wylio.
Use Wylio to find copyright-free pictures for teacher use in any subject area or for student use as soon as they learn to copy/paste embed codes. This tool would be a great asset to a photography or art class but can be used in any subject area. Use pictures that showcase life around us or in a Math class to show various Math functions in man made structures and nature. Use this site to take your geography class around the world (virtually). Have students create presentations in any subject area and narrate the pictures rather than doing a traditional oral report. Use a site such as Slidestory, reviewed here, to narrate the pictures. Speech and language in lower grades or ESL/ELL teachers could use pictures for vocabulary development and allow students to add words or sentences to go with the pictures. In Science, find pictures that represent various concepts and encourage explanations of these concepts for better understanding.

This website shows three dimensional, interactive pictures of parts of the skeletons of different humans. A quick time player is needed to use this website. Click on the bone you want to see, allow it to load (which only takes a few seconds depending on your connection speed), and then click on the image to move it and view it from different angles. Experience human bones up close without the expense of purchasing a model.

In the Classroom

Place this link on your website to be used as a study aide by your students studying bone structure and anatomy. Or, try making an art and science connection by having students in a class choose different bones and then -- with the aide of the pictures-- make clay structures. Have the entire class create an entire skeleton as an individual/group activity. Take digital photos of the skeletons and have students narrate the photos using ThingLink, reviewed here.

Use CurriConnects to find books related to curriculum topics or subject areas. Build student literacy skills, reinforce the place of curriculum concepts in other contexts, and help students build the important reading strategy of connecting what they read to prior knowledge. Share CurriConnects as links on your class web page or wiki or share them with school and local libraries where students can select books to accompany what they are studying. Topics include Earth Science, Explorers, Frontiers and Settlers, Geographic Wonders (landforms), Inventors and Inventions, Maps, Math in Use, Medicine and Health, The Artists's Eye (books with outstanding illustrations and books about artists), What Do You Do? (careers). More are being added on an ongoing basis. Grade ranges vary.

In the Classroom

Share CurriConnects as links on your class web page or wiki or share them with school and local libraries where students can select books to accompany what they are studying. Explore the many ideas TeachersFirst offers for using CurriConnects in your classroom. Be sure to share these lists with ESL/ELL teachers for reading selections to build student vocabulary and understanding of curriculum.

This site provides practice with creating and exploring tessellations. Choices are provided to use triangles, rectangles, or hexagons. Once a shape is chosen, the corner can be stretched to create a new shape. Click a button and that shape is converted into a tessellation in front of your eyes! Choices are also provided for different colors within the shapes to enable visualization of how the pattern is created.

The learner portion of the site provides a written explanation of tessellations and information on how they are found in the real world. Be sure to visit the instructor link on the website for information on classroom use, links to standards, links to similar resources and to print an exploration questions worksheet.

In the Classroom

Use this site as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson on tessellations on a projector or interactive whiteboard. It relates well during study of flips, turns, and rotations as well as visual thinking. Introduce this site and then have students complete the exploration questions independently or in small groups. After students become familiar with tessellations, use examples on the site and have students create their own tessellations.

Picture a Story is an interactive storytelling activity that lets you create stories with artwork from the Delaware Art Museum. Students first select a story genre, then a setting for the story to take place in. Next, they insert characters and props into their scene to create a unique scenario. From this assemblage students can either write or record an accompanying story. All of the available imagery comes directly from the Museum collection.

Be aware: there is an allow/deny button that pop up on this site. You must allow access in order to fully utilize this website. Before the site opens, they ask permission to access your computers camera and microphone. This will enable audio recording functions. Denial of this access will still allow students to create and write stories.

In the Classroom

Picture a story is an engaging way to inspire students to write. Working from this rich bank of imagery can nicely support writing lessons about voice, sensory description, point of view, descriptive narrative, and story structure. Use this site with a projector or interactive whiteboard when presenting a writers workshop mini-lesson to the whole class. Use this site together with younger students (unable to read on their own) on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Students can submit their writing and record themselves telling their story. This is a great opportunity to address reading fluency, expression, and communication skills. Integrate writing lessons with art history. Have students research the historical significance of the images they choose. Take time to enjoy and review stories by other students and professional storytellers. This activity would work well for individual students in a lab or on laptops. Share the final project through email or submit it to the Delaware Art Museum's online gallery of pictures and stories.

General Tips and Reminders: Remember to obtain parent/guardian permission before allowing students to submit their stories. Also, check with your administrator to be sure that your school allows students to interact with the public online. Adobe Flash Player is necessary to record audio.

This elementary computer teacher (and acclaimed teacher-leader in educational technology) has collected the very best of virtual pumpkin carving sites on his class blog. Scroll to the wonderful Shockwave file version hosted right on this blog and to several other virtual pumpkin links below it. Go far beyond "mouse practice" to creative designs. You may be tempted to purchase several real pumpkins to try out the designs you work out here.

In the Classroom

Share these sites as part of pumpkin day at your school as you count and graph pumpkin seeds in math class, prepare pumpkin recipes in science, and write pumpkin stories. Save the mess and make a virtual pumpkin carving station on an interactive whiteboard or projector as part of a Fall Festival. Take a screen shot of your "best" pumpkin to accompany student writing on your class blog. On Windows, press the PrntScrn key to COPY your screen, then PASTE it into a document. You will want to use the crop tool to eliminate stuff around the edges. On a Mac, it's shift+command+4 to get a tool you use to select the portion of your screen to "screenshot." Then use the image file saved on your desktop as your illustration. You might even want to make a class book of pumpkin designs and stories.

Yulia Brodskaya is a Russian born graphic design artist. Her site is a virtual gallery of her amazing paper art constructions. Her artwork integrates an inventive use of typography, illustration, and graphic design. There are also YouTube videos of her working in the studio.

In the Classroom

Art and design teachers will enjoy sharing the innovative ways Yulia Brodskaya uses design elements and color with cut paper. Her art is especially useful for explaining unique ways in which artists use line in their work. Share the art on this site as a whole-class lesson on a projector or interactive whiteboard. A few videos show the artist creating her work and as an animation. The film is embedded from YouTube so if your school blocks YouTube, consider accessing this site and previewing the video at home. Use a tool such as KeepVid reviewed here to download the videos from YouTube to bring it/them in for class use. Be sure to take time to view Yulia Brodskaya's earlier work and to discuss how a signature style can mature with practice and perseverance. This site is excellent for enrichment. Include it on your class web page for students to access both in and out of class.

This site is an engaging way to send greetings to friends via Google Maps. The creator became interested in seeing how many buildings looked like letters of the alphabet when viewed in Google Maps so he decided to put them together as a way to send messages to friends. Just type in your message and it will be created using various buildings from around the world, your message can then be emailed to your friends. Each letter also includes a pop-up showing the name of the building and its location. Click here for an example of a message that can be created.

In the Classroom

Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Introduce students to Google Maps by creating messages with geoGreeting. Art teachers can use this tool to show the flexibility of letter forms created by real objects via satellite view. Primary reading teachers may even want to expose students to alternate letter forms created from satellite views! Use this site to expand your students' understanding of geography. Create messages, then explore and research the buildings and areas that are used in the creation of the message. Have students work with a partner to research a building and create a multimedia presentation to share with the class. How about an interactive online poster using Genial.ly, reviewed here, or narrate a picture using a tool such as ThingLink, reviewed here. If you want to use another geography tool, have students use an online mapping tool to create their own "tour" for the class. Try a tool such as Tour Builder, reviewed here.

This site, created in the United Kingdom, offers many timelines with a simple click to launch an amazing 3-dimensional page. Timelines are organized by subject matter and include samplings from literature, sociology, history, everyday life, science, technology, explorers, medicine, and more. With another click, you can zoom from one century to another. Start in the 1210s and work your way through the years. View the context of history using visual artifacts from DaVinci's contemporaries to shopping in the 1890s. Connect historical events or technological accomplishments by seeing them alongside simultaneous events, precursors, or results. An additional option allows you to save favorite timelines and/or events.

In the Classroom

This site is excellent for research projects or to provide visual context to your curriculum in social studies, world cultures, world history, literature, art, or western heritage classes. Offer this set of timelines as a research source for history, social studies, and literature classes. Show students these timelines on an interactive whiteboard. Or have students research various topics on their own using this fabulous tool. Pique their interest by letting them browse to find out what else happened at the same time as events in the standard history curriculum -- then ask WHY. Challenge cooperative learning groups to create online posters displaying their findings using an online poster creator, such as Padlet (reviewed here).

Use Flickriver as a new way to view photos from Flickr. Click the "Explore" tab to view recent pictures uploaded to flickr. Create your own flickriver stream and view all photos from other flickriver streams by registering and creating a flickr login. Use the search bar at the top to customize search by users, groups, tags, or places.

In the Classroom

Create a class Flickr account to upload pictures of experiments, student projects, and items related to class content. Use Flickriver to pull these pictures in to view by the class. Use pictures to represent Math concepts, poems and stories, science concepts in the real world, or items belonging to cultures. Create a flickriver of art projects to display to the world. If students are allowed individual accounts, they could use this as a way to share their portfolios of artwork or digital images.

Color coordination has never been easier. color hunter generates a complete color palette directly from a photograph. Upload your own digital image or access color schemes from previously loaded Flick'r API photo thumbnails. Search for color schemes with a tag, "hex" color code, or an image's URL. Locate and click on a desirable color swatch and new color ranges and photographs appear. Each color comes with a useful color code. You can also use color hunter to separate out colors from a photo to "see" what colors might be used to create a painting of the same subject matter. Users do not need to open an account to access the tools in color hunter. Having an account does provide a "favorites" file to store previous photos and palettes. There are ads along the right side of the screen and links to other sites across the bottom of the page. They are not obtrusive but remember to advise students to avoid them.

In the Classroom

Encourage students to use this tool to enhance projects and presentations. With "color hunter," multimedia presentations can have the look and feel of their subject. For example, enhance a report on Ancient Greece by entering a key word such as Parthenon and immediately receive color schemes characteristic of this period in time. Suggest this page as a tool to help students create online posters using sites such as Web Poster Wizard (reviewed here) or Motiveator reviewed here. Students studying web design can use this free site to develop web pages around a key photo. Art teachers can also use this tool on a projector or interactive whiteboard to show analogous/complementary color schemes in photos, then "pull" the colors to help students "see" them.

Create your own graphics, logos, banners, or headers using your own photos with this free site. Note that ads do appear on this site as well as links to other graphic generators. Students should be directed and monitored during site use. Click "Choose File" and then "Upload Photo." There is a file upload size limit of 975 KB. Choose from one of these tools once the image is uploaded: Frames, borders, overlays, add figures/props, fake magazine covers, and more. Easily switch back to the original photo, and final image can be saved or create a link or embed code to place on a different site. Photos are saved on the site. Create a login to be able to delete saved photos. Once registered, create a password to manage your photos.

In the Classroom

Users must be able to find, upload, and edit images to this site. Users must also have an understanding of downloading final images or using links and embed codes for sharing. No email is required, but deleting photos is possible only with an account.

School Video News provides valuable resources and on-going professional guidance for educators developing technical expertise in video production. Their free monthly magazine is full of technical articles written by industry professionals. The web site posts examples of student projects, production tips, school profiles, and product reviews. The teacher page contains articles that focus on issues common to educators, provides legal tips on copyright laws, book suggestions, video tutorials, information about grants and competitions. An especially good feature is the excellent lesson plans and activities that come complete with an email contact for questions or feedback. Subscribe to their monthly magazine or follow their twitter posts @schoolvideonews.

This site is a fantastic professional development resource to enhance educator's technical expertise in video production. There are articles and a wealth of information about possible grants and competitions. Those who have grant money to spend will find the informative product reviews helpful for making equipment decisions. The discussion board is great way to reach out to other professionals and develop a personal learning network. Facilitators of school television productions or broadcast journalism will find not only informative technical advice but also guidance about ethical decision-making and how to handle controversial subject matter. It is worth it to subscribe to this site, everything is here.

In the Classroom

Divide students into cooperative learning groups to explore the site. Have student's jigsaw various articles from the "Production" page and research the stages in production and the responsibility of each team member's role. After assigning positions to student, ask them to do more in-depth research about the expectations of their particular job. Have students create multimedia presentations about their job, such as having students create an interactive online poster using Genial.ly, reviewed here.

Recommend video tutorials or articles on subjects such as how to build dollies, create green screens, lighting, design backdrops, shoot angles or how to monitor a sound track. Help students take incentive for their own learning by merely directing them to informative on-line resources.

Turn photographs into oil paintings, stencils, line drawings and much more with Befunky. You can doctor photos with bad lighting, fuzzy image, or poor exposure. The humorous elements on the "goodies" screen will allow you to add glasses, facial hair, picture frames, doodles, or speech bubbles. The text feature contains 11 different kinds of fonts. Befunky can directly post photos onto social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Flicker, Bebo, PhotoBucket, and Picasa. Befunky will automatically store all original and manipulated photos into a private personal library. This is a device-agnostic tool, available on the web but also available for free as both an Android and iOS app. Use it from any device or move between several devices and still access your work. App and web versions vary slightly. Photo effects come with a free account and pop up ads. Other subscriptions and site capabilities cost money. There are drawbacks: "Befunky.com" is in the bottom right corner of the final product, they continually ask about upgrades, and the photo file is the size of a thumbnail.

In the Classroom

Create more compelling graphics for presentations, multi-media projects, reports, yearbooks, newsletters, or class websites. When publishing student writing, liven up the "About the Author" page with a more artistic photograph of the author. Instead of using a dull student mug shot for the class job board or for class routine charts, replace it with photo illustrations. Share class rules through interesting "characters" speaking on the bulletin board! The speech bubble option may help students learn to write in the first person narrative, or reveal the unspoken thoughts of a character from a book or point in time. Use BeFunky characters in a center for creative writing or as visual writing prompts for the entire class. Use the images for creating political posters for fictitious candidates and their platforms. Photograph a reenactment of scenes from a fairy tale or folktale. Transform these photos into illustrations for a wordless interactive online book using a tool such as on Bookemon reviewed here. Students participating in a social network for class such as a blog or wiki, will enjoy using Befunky to create entertaining profile pictures. Use this tool easily in your Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) classroom since all students will be able to access it for free, no matter what device they have. Many schools prohibit use of "social networking" sites. Check your school policies and/or obtain parent permission before allowing students to use social features. Spell out specific permissions and consequences. Of course you will also want written parent permission before submitting student work to this online gallery.

Use this online picture generator to draw and create original art. Create logos, patterns, or other elements. Click on the green button to begin. Create a new picture by combining two others. Mutapic randomly generates pictures so choices are different each time. Choose the two pictures in the space at the left side of the screen. Click the green button to generate a new picture. Change any of the aspects listed such as tint, brightness, symmetry, and more to change aspects of the picture. Some features such as Save and Import are only available with the professional version. Work can easily be saved using the print screen function (Print Screen -- PrtScrn key -- in Windows or Apple/Shift/4 in a Mac). Your image can then be "pasted" into a document, slide, or elsewhere, using Ctrl+V (Command+v on Mac).

In the Classroom

Use to generate original artwork which can be shared with the class on a blog, wiki, or site. Use the designs to discuss aspects of art such as line color, balance, shape, texture, etc. Recreate drawings in class using media found in the classroom. Challenge students to create their own projects in cooperative learning groups. Have students operate this tool on an interactive whiteboard to demonstrate design principles in Art class. Make creative bulletin board displays or visual writing prompts, simply by asking "what is it?" or "what does it do?" next to your new designs. Decorate student-made greeting cards using images as part of an informal letter-writing activity.